A Long Time
by awfullynormal
Summary: Bella makes a comment about marriage that upsets Edward. How will they talk it out? One-shot. AU, AH. Rated M just in case.


**A/N: I'm back! Sorry it's so short. Talk to you more at the bottom....  


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A Long Time**

BPOV

After the movies, Edward and I met up with Emmet and Rosalie for a drink. We walked around downtown a little, everyone a bit tipsy except Rosalie who was eight months pregnant. I was walking between Emmet and Edward, both of whom had one of their arms draped around their girl. Edward, surely acting on a drunken urge, made a joke about Emmett and Rosalie's sexual life, or lack there-of; Rosalie's doctor had strongly recommended an abstinence from sex starting two weeks ago and continuing until the baby was born.

"Edward," I scolded. He was one to talk. Both of us were still virgins; we were waiting until marriage.

Rosalie spoke up, too. "Bella will you push Edward for me?"

"Hmm. How 'bout I hug him? That way, I'm pushing him into me," I said, hugging Edward tighter to me.

Emmett burst out laughing, and Edward and Rosalie quickly caught on and joined in. "What?" I asked, looking up at Edward. I could feel my face start to flush.

He bent down to whisper in my ear, "That's what She said."

My face reddened instantly. "Oh my gosh. Really, Edward?" I slapped him across the stomach. "I swear, sometimes I wonder if your brain has developed at all since Jr. High," I teased looking back at him.

He smiled widely. "It probably hasn't." He joked back, and hugged me tighter kissing the top of my head.

We dropped Emmett and Rosalie off shortly after that at their new flat. As we turned away, Rosalie stopped us. "No! Come in and see it. You've never been in. Maybe we can give you two some ideas." She smiled knowingly.

"Rosalie, we're not buying an apartment together for a long time." We weren't even engaged yet, let alone married, and the only time we'd ever talked about marriage had been when we agreed to not have sex until we were married.

We took a tour anyway, Rosalie and Emmett pointing out important things to look for in a new place all along the way. After the tour, Edward insisted he needed to get home, and finally got me out of there.

He walked me to my apartment and stopped me at the entrance. "Can I come in?" He asked warily.

"Yeah, sure. Come on up." I grabbed his hand again and looked up at his face. He was deep in thought. Whenever he had that look on his face, it meant an argument was about to start or he was about to do something big. I hoped to God it was the latter; I couldn't handle an argument after the week I'd had.

He was silent the duration of the elevator ride and the walk to my door. As I let him in, I asked him if he wanted a drink. He mumbled something about Vodka. That didn't surprise me; Vodka had always been his drink of choice.

I poured him some Vodka, grabbed myself a beer, and walked our to where Edward was currently seated.

I handed him his drink and sat quietly next to him, waiting for him to break the silence. When he was in this mood, he had to start talking; I couldn't rush him.

After about two minutes, he took a deep breath and asked, "Bella, don't you love me?"

I blinked. "What? Of course I do."

"Really? You're sure?" he continued warily.

"Yes, I'm positive. Edward, where is this coming from?"

"You said 'a long time.'"

"What?"

"You said that we wouldn't be buying an apartment together for a long time."

I didn't remember saying that. "When?"

"When Rosalie said she could give us ideas, you said that we wouldn't be buying an apartment for a long –"

"Okay! I get that I said that. But so what? I mean, we're not getting married anytime soon and we already agreed to not buy a place together until we got married. I don't see the problem."

"But you said 'a long time.' What makes you think it will be so long from now?"

"I didn't mean it like that. I just meant that it wouldn't be any time soon. I mean, come on, Edward. We haven't even been dating four months. Do you really think that's long enough to know if we're ready for marriage? You don't think we're ready for marriage, do you?"

He sighed and rubbed his hands over his eyes roughly before answering. "Yes."

"What?" I asked, taken slightly aback.

"Yes, I think we are ready for marriage. We're not like most couples, Bella. We talk about everything and we spend almost all of out time with each other. Don't you think we're ready for marriage?"

"I… I don't know." But as I thought about Edward and our relationship – how honest we were, how much we talked – I realized that maybe we could be ready. "I guess. Marriage is a big step."

"But don't you think we can handle it? Don't you think, after all we've been through together, that we're ready to take a big step?" He was almost pleading now.

"Edward Masen, are you _proposing_ to me?"

He looked away. "Maybe I'm proposing to propose. Hypothetically speaking, I could have the ring at my apartment." I smiled. I loved when we talked 'hypothetically.' There was no pressure, and it took some of the pressure off. "Hypothetically speaking," he continued, "I could have the date all planned out for when I would ask you. Hypothet—"

"Hypothetically speaking," I interrupted again, grabbing his hand and catching his gaze, "I would say yes."

His eyes immediately brightened, a large smile forming on his face. "Really?"

Instead of answering his question, I asked one of my own. "Hypothetically speaking, what do you think of a spring wedding?" It was the beginning of December, giving us a little over four months to plan a wedding – hypothetically speaking – but it would be worth it.

His smile grew wider still, and he breathed a quick "Yes," before giving me an exuberant kiss. "I love you," he mumbled, somehow without taking his lips off mine.

I love you, too," I mumbled back, repeating the gesture. I couldn't believe it. I was getting married this spring.

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**A/N: I think I was depressed when I wrote this. It's hard to tell, isn't it? For some reason, I think I write better when I'm depressed, it's weird :) Not that this is exactly my best, because it's definitely not. I just needed to write something to help with the writer's block. Hopefully this worked, and you'll see more Edward Who really soon!**

**By the way, the little that's-what-she-said joke? Yeah. Replace Bella with my mom, Edward with my dad, and Emmett and Rosalie with me and a friend. Can you say awkward???!! I don't think she ever realized what she said, though. ;)  
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**Thanks for the support. I hope you enjoyed it :)**

**Note: This is a one-shot, and will not be continued. Ever. Sorry, but I can't see it going anywhere unique or interesting.  
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**-awfullynormal -----**


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